From Fjords to Pharaohs

[Wello]

Our final day in the fjords part of this trip in Bergen was cloudy and rainy but we decided we would do the funicular to Mount Floyen anyway. There are some nice walks at the top and I am sure in summer it would get very busy.




We again stayed at a Thon hotel in Bergen and it was quite comfortable and the room was the biggest so far on our trip. The buffet breakfast is very similar at each Thon hotel so the breakfast we loved on day one becomes less exciting by our last day.

After the funicular we took an airport bus to Bergen airport for our direct flight to Krakow with Norwegian Airlines. Bergen airport is not big and we were able to drop our bags and get through security within minutes of arrival.

We flew on a Boeing 737-800 with Norwegian Airlines with a flight time of 2 hours 20 minutes, although we left Bergen 10 minutes early and landed in Krakow about 20 minutes early. You receive no free food or drinks on Norwegian but because it was an evening flight we ordered a meal which was quite good for an economy flight. There is also only economy seats on this flight. On arrival in Krakow we are transported to the terminal by bus.

I had read horror stories about Krakow airport and the time it takes to get through immigration but this was no problem for us as we were arriving within the Schengen area so there are no checks needed. After showing our passports in Copenhagen it continues to amaze me how seamless it is to travel between countries in the Schengen area without ever showing any identity documents.

 

[Wello]

There is plenty of things to keep you busy in Krakow and the Australian dollar goes much further here. It is at least half as cheap as Norway and public transport, food and drinks are much more affordable. This is my first visit to Poland and I am very impressed with it as a tourist destination. The locals seem happy when you see them and although not all speak great English, we have had no trouble finding someone who is happy to help us. I have realised on this trip how I take it for granted that others will speak English and I need to be doing more to at least learn some basic phrases in the local language.

On our first full day we did a walking tour and received an unexpected education of Australian history. I was unaware that Australia’s tallest mountain, Mt Kosciuszko was named after a local Krakow freedom fighter. I will include a photo of his statue below. The main square in Krakow is very large and brings in reasonable large crowds. We have been fortunate to get very good weather in Krakow with beautiful blue skies.

 

[Wello]

Krakow is not far from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and a place that I wanted to visit and one of the key reasons for choosing Krakow on this trip. This is an important place to remember the cruelty of man and they want you to visit to learn about what happened in the hope it is never repeated.

I booked directly with the museum as have heard that some third party providers can cancel trips at last moment. We caught a train (65 minutes) from Krakow to Oswiecim and you can either walk or catch a bus from the train station. We chose to walk and it was about 20 minutes.

It is really hard to describe what it is like to visit as it is not the place you go to and say it was a great day. It is in fact a difficult and emotional day as you try and comprehend how it could happen that over 1.1 million people were murdered here. I found the room that contained the hair from the female victims particularly moving and walking through the original gas chamber was just really sad.

There are only a couple of places that you can’t take photos but there were other areas that I just didn’t feel comfortable taking photos and in respect I did not take any photos of myself and wife while we were here.

In the spirit that they want you to share the story and make sure that we don’t forget what happened here, I have included some photos below.

 

[Wello]

Our next day in Krakow we travelled by train to the Weiliczka Salt Mine. The mine was active for over 700 years and now you can do a tour but it is so large the tour covers just 2% of the mine.

The mine is very easy to get to from central Krakow but you do need to book a timed visit in your language of choice with a guide. The entrance to the mine is just a short walk from the train station. To get into the mine there is no lift and you descend about 380 steps and during the tour you do about 800 steps. Luckily they have a lift to take you back to the surface. Most of the stairs are going down so I found the visit quite easy.

Inside the mine they have created multiple statues made of salt and the guide provides a historical story on the mine over the years. They do provide headphones to listen to the guide but I found it easier to just stand near her and listen without the headphones as in most locations your group is the only one there.

I enjoyed the tour and would recommend it if you are in Krakow.

 

[Wello]

After we returned to Krakow from the salt mine we decided to visit a bunny cafe. It is actually what the name says, you can get a drink and desert and pat bunnies. You need to pay extra ($8Aud) to spend 25 minutes with the bunnies. With pet rabbits illegal in Queensland we thought it would be nice to pay the extra. It was a nice break in the day and the bunnies fur was so soft. They provide rules on what you can and can’t do including not picking them up and not touching them if they go into their house.

 

[Wello]

As a side note, this trip report is just a few days behind real time so we are dealing with what is happening in the world right now and have had many friends from home checking that we are ok (which we appreciate). Thankfully we are, but I don’t think any of friends realise that Krakow is just 300km from the Ukraine border and about 800km from Kyiv. No one questioned our visit to Poland. The question we get is, are we still going to Egypt.

At the moment we are going to Egypt as the safety levels (level 2) from the Australian government has not changed. If anything changes over the next four days or we feel unsafe we will just find somewhere else in Europe to visit. I would be interested if anyone would or wouldn’t go to Egypt at the moment.

On a positive note, we are glad we are returning to Australia via Singapore and do not have the stress others may have on whether their return trip will go ahead.

 

[Wello]

On our final day in Krakow we visited the Jewish quarter and went past Schindler’s factory but chose not to go in because of the long line.


We then returned to the old town to look at some of the shops and visited Wawel Castle. At the castle you need to pay for the different areas you want to see except on Mondays when it is free. We visited the Castle Underground and the Armoury.




We have enjoyed our time in Krakow and could easily have spent some more time here.

 

[Wello]

In Krakow we stayed at the Mercure Krakow State Miasto which I quite enjoyed. It is just near Krakow Glowny train station and across the road from a large shopping mall. It was also less than 10 minute walk to the old town. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the room but it was the largest of our trip so far and also the cheapest.

We didn’t have breakfast included and had the freedom to try different places. I would certainly recommend Bread and Butter



and Pronaki.



We also had a good steak dinner at Mr Jerry’s.



We left Krakow just before 9pm on a sleeping train. We had a late 6pm checkout from our room so left our bags and had dinner before catching the train to Salzburg.

The advantage of the sleeping train was that it gave us a full day in Krakow and then we arrived in Salzburg at 8:30am the next day so we also had a full day in Salzburg not interrupted by travel. Do you get a nice peaceful sleep? No you don’t, as it can be noisy, but I got enough sleep to feel rested when we arrived. I wouldn’t travel this way too much on a trip but as a once off it was fine. The cabins are small with bunk beds and a sink. The toilet is shared and there is no shower on this train but with our late checkout we could have a shower prior to getting on the train.

 

[Wello]

As we have done in many cities we started the first day in Salzburg doing a walking tour to help get our bearings. The old town of Salzburg is not that big so the walking tour only went for 90 minutes and visited the main attractions (from the outside) including Mozart’s birthplace and residence.

Also we noticed while walking that a lot of Easter decorations were in stores, including some very nice hand painted real eggs.

When staying in Salzburg hotels, you receive free access to public transport. Although we didn’t make use of it as we walked everywhere. There were plenty of people around the old town but it never felt busy, although I can imagine it gets very busy during their summer. We had no trouble getting into restaurants without any bookings.

 

[Wello]

Salzburg is of course the home of the von Trapp family and where a lot of Sound of Music was filmed. My wife told me that it is mandatory to do a Sound of Music tour when you visit. We learnt a few things during the tour, the von Trapp children names were changed for the movie and when the family were seen fleeing over the mountains near Salzburg, they would have been heading to Germany and not Switzerland from these mountains. They actually just took a train from Salzburg and got out of Austria one day before the borders were closed.

The sites we visited included the two houses that were used for the front and back of the von Trapp house, the gazebo that Liesl danced in, locations where Do-Re-Me was filmed and the church where their wedding was held. We also visited the monastery where the inspiration for the crypts was taken from.

A very enjoyable tour with a lot of sing alongs on the bus.

 

[Wello]

Our other tour while in Salzburg was to Hallstatt. A beautiful town by the water. It is about a 90 minute drive from Salzburg and we had two and half hours to explore the town which was plenty of time to slowly look through the town and grab some lunch. This was certainly a good time to visit, although a number of restaurants were closed as they were on their annual holiday. I don’t believe that it wouldn’t be as enjoyable during summer when it is shoulder to shoulder tourists visiting during the day.

We also made a couple of stops for photo opportunities between Salzburg and Hallstatt including Red Bulls headquarters at Fuschl.

This tour was in a small van with just seven tourists and the driver. You are dropped off for a self tour of Hallstatt but the driver/guide talks all the way there and back about what we pass and local stories.

Would recommend as the drive is scenic and the town is worth a visit.

 

[Wello]

In Salzburg we stayed at Leonardo’s Boutique Hotel. It was quite nice and was central to everything we wanted to see. Unfortunately I again failed to take pictures of the room. Three full days in Salzburg is more than enough time to see everything of interest.

From Salzburg we travelled by train to Vienna, our last stop before we commence the pharaohs part of our holiday. The train takes about 2 1/2 hours and was full but we had reserved seats.

For our first afternoon in Vienna we just wandered the streets near our hotel.

 

[Wello]

We were going to be in Vienna for our wedding anniversary so we wanted to do something special and decided to see the opera. Madam Butterfly just so happened to be playing on our anniversary at the Vienna State Opera.

I brought the tickets the day that went on sale as it did sell out. Although if you are in Vienna and want to go to a sold out performance you can still get tickets. They do sell standing tickets on the night and there were plenty of scalpers also selling tickets out the front.

This was our first opera and although we were familiar with the story, a screen was in front of our seats which translated the songs into English. I personally found this added to our enjoyment to understand in more detail the story. Our seats were in a box on the second level. There are six people in each box. We were at the front of the box and had good views of both the stage and the orchestra. The people behind us had a restricted view.

Although Madam Butterfly is a sad story, the singing and music was spectacular and we thoroughly enjoyed the night. The venue is also worth a visit and they do tours during the day if you don’t want to attend a performance.

 

[RooFlyer]

Salzburg is of course the home of the von Trapp family and where a lot of Sound of Music was filmed.

I went there 2 years ago and was oblivious to that angle! Looked at the Mozart stuff though.

 

[Wello]

We only had two full days in Vienna and it really is not possible to see everything you want and we will need to come back to explore some more.

Some of the highlights from our stay included visiting Schonbrunn Palace, seeing a unique building called Hundertwasserhaus, shopping at an old fashioned flea market and just wandering around looking at all the amazing buildings

 

[Wello]

Schonbrunn Palace

 

[Wello]

We stayed at Austria Classic Wien Hotel which is located in the 2nd district in Vienna. Public transport was very assessable from the hotel and we caught trains, trams and buses around the city. The train line with direct access to the airport is just a five minute walk and cheaper than the dedicated CAT train to the airport. We bought all day tickets for public transport and made good use of it as Vienna is spread out. The U1 train line was also a few minutes walk and connected across the city.

There are a number of restaurants and coffee shops nearby and we ate one night at an Italian restaurant and one night at a Vietnamese restaurant as we had done the Austrian restaurants in Salzburg.

Breakfast was included and it was good to see the buffet changed various items each day so you didn’t become bored with the offerings.

The room was quiet and met our needs and all staff we met were friendly.

 

[Wello]

One of the reasons for going to Vienna was we could get a direct flight to Cairo. However this was cancelled before we left home and we were offered a direct flight the next day. This wasn’t going to fit in with our plans in Egypt so I had to change to connecting flight. Of course they offered a ridiculous connection but I found flights that I wanted with Austrian Airlines to Zurich and Swiss Airlines to Cairo. For some reason my mobile phone can call a lot of countries around the world as part of my plan but not Austria. I was however able to do an online chat with them and able to book my preferred flights at no extra charge as required by the European laws.

Except for to and from Australia, all other flights are in Y. The Austrian Airlines flight was on board an A320. It was a fairly uneventful flight with just water and a chocolate provided as part of your ticket.



The flight from Zurich with Swiss Airlines is four hours and I would have to say it was one of the most uncomfortable planes I had been on. Swiss use an A220 but the seats are so close together it is really horrible. In fact the person in front tried to recline their seat but it was not possible as my knees stopped it moving. This was not done on purpose and I was sitting normally. The flight had plenty of spare seats so we did have a spare seat between me and my wife but it was still very uncomfortable. Also in the photo notice the unusable seat pocket. For a four hour flight you have to buy your food and just receive a water and chocolate. I would also say the Austrian chocolate was much better than the Swiss. Avoid this plane if you can and fly on a direct flight from Vienna if possible. So begins the Pharaoh’s part of our trip.

 

[OZDUCK]

We only had two full days in Vienna and it really is not possible to see everything you want and we will need to come back to explore some more.

Some of the highlights from our stay included visiting Schonbrunn Palace, seeing a unique building called Hundertwasserhaus, shopping at an old fashioned flea market and just wandering around looking at all the amazing buildings

View attachment 500419View attachment 500420View attachment 500421View attachment 500421View attachment 500422View attachment 500423View attachment 500424View attachment 500425View attachment 500426View attachment 500427

Were there many ants around the base of the Ferris wheel in the Prater Park. Sorry couldn't resist a silly The Third Man reference.

 

[VPS]

Were there many ants around the base of the Ferris wheel in the Prater Park. Sorry couldn't resist a silly The Third Man reference.

Love that movie and the theme song